The present invention is directed to the field of low dielectric constant materials produced by CVD methods. In particular, the present invention is directed to methods for making films of such materials and their use as insulating layers in electronic devices.
The electronics industry utilizes dielectric materials as insulating layers between circuits and components of integrated circuits (IC) and associated electronic devices. Line dimensions are being reduced in order to increase the speed and memory storage capability of microelectronic devices (e.g., computer chips). As the line dimensions decrease, the insulating requirements for the interlayer dielectric (ILD) become much more rigorous. Shrinking the spacing requires a lower dielectric constant to minimize the RC time constant, where R is the resistance of the conductive line and C is the capacitance of the insulating dielectric interlayer. The value of C is inversely proportional to spacing and proportional to the dielectric constant (k) of the interlayer dielectric (ILD). Conventional silica (SiO2) CVD dielectric films produced from SiH4 or TEOS (Si(OCH2CH3)4, tetraethylorthosilicate) and O2 have a dielectric constant k greater than 4.0. There are several ways in which the industry has attempted to produce silica-based CVD films with lower dielectric constants, the most successful being the doping of the insulating silicon oxide film with organic groups providing dielectric constants in the range of 2.7-3.5. This organosilica glass is typically deposited as a dense film (density 1.5 g/cm3) from an organosilicon precursor, such as a methylsilane or siloxane, and an oxidant, such as O2 or N2O. Organosilica glass will herein be referred to as OSG. As dielectric constant or “k” values drop below 2.7 with higher device densities and smaller dimensions, the industry has exhausted most of the suitable low k compositions for dense films and has turned to various porous materials for improved insulating properties.
The patents and applications which are known in the field of porous ILD by CVD methods include: EP 1 119 035 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,945, which describe a process of depositing an OSG film from organosilicon precursors with labile groups in the presence of an oxidant such as N2O and optionally a peroxide, with subsequent removal of the labile group with a thermal anneal to provide porous OSG; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,054,206 and 6,238,751, which teach the removal of essentially all organic groups from deposited OSG with an oxidizing anneal to obtain porous inorganic SiO2; EP 1 037 275, which describes the deposition of an hydrogenated silicon carbide film which is transformed into porous inorganic SiO2 by a subsequent treatment with an oxidizing plasma; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,793 B1, WO 00/24050, and a literature article Grill, A. Patel, V. Appl. Phys. Lett. (2001), 79(6), pp. 803-805, which all teach the co-deposition of a film from an organosilicon precursor and an organic compound, and subsequent thermal anneal to provide a multiphase OSG/organic film in which a portion of the polymerized organic component is retained. In these latter references the ultimate final compositions of the films indicate residual porogen and a high hydrocarbon film content (80-90 atomic %). It is preferable that the final film retain the SiO2-like network, with substitution of a portion of oxygen atoms for organic groups.
All references disclosed herein are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.